Review: LockScreen

Published by David Gilson at 7:03 UTC, December 12th 2011

Summary:

Lock screen customisation has so far been the preserve of Android devices. However LockScreen for Symbian is looking to redress the balance. With this application you can add five shortcuts, including Music player controls, to the lock screen that comes up after you press the menu key. Read on to find out how well it works in practice.

LockScreen is a simple application, which requires little description. When you launch the application you are presented with six drop down list boxes. The first five allow you choose the shortcuts you want to appear on your lock screen, and the sixth sets whether you want it to launch automatically whenever you boot your phone.

Configuring Lockscreen

To access your Symbian device's lock screen, you just have to press the menu key while the screen is off - i.e. the device is locked. Normally you will see a clock, message notifications and an unlock button. With LockScreen, five shortcut buttons - or six on S60 5th Edition - are added around the unlock button. Tapping any of these takes you directly into that application without having to unlock your screen.

Lockscreen in action, with and without music controls

When you go into the LockScreen configuration screen, each button has a full list of every application on the device. In addition, there are options for Music player controls, Play/Pause, previous, next and stop. This is a great help on these modern devices that lack hardware multimedia controls.

One can debate the usefulness of this application given that Nokia devices all have the innovative keylock slider. The control is unique and makes getting back into your phone a doddle. However, there are a number of specific cases where it isn't that helpful. For instance, if you want to get into the camera application as quickly as possible, it's faster to use a Camera shortcut with Lockscreen than unlocking the screen, waiting for the homescreen to load, then hitting the shutter button and waiting for the Camera app to load up. Lockscreen cuts out the first phase of that set of steps.

Furthermore, having music controls accessible without having to either navigate to a homescreen with the music widget or get into the Music player is a big bonus too.

LockScreen is available in the Nokia Store for £1.00 and is well worth a look.

Recommended.

David Gilson, 11 December 2011

 

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